find her, though on the face of it you'd think I'd lost
her, wouldn't you? Somewhere and sometime I'll come again--and when I
do, she'll know _me_."

And to save my life I couldn't tell him I didn't believe it! His
manner even more than his words impressed me. He didn't look
improbable.

"One little life and one little death," said the Butterfly Man,
"couldn't possibly be big enough for something like this to get away
from a man forever. I have got the thing too big for a dozen lives to
hold. Isn't that a great deal for a man to have, parson?"

"Yes." said I. "It is a great deal for a man to have." But I foresaw
the empty, empty places, in the long, long years ahead. I added
faintly: "Having that much, you have more than most."

"You only have what you are big enough not to take," said he. "And I'm
not fooling myself I shan't be lonesome and come some rough tumbles at
times. The difference is, that if I go down now I won't stay down. If
there was one thing I could grieve over, too, it would be--kids. I'd
like kids. My own kids. And I shall never have any. It--well, it just
wouldn't be fair to the kids. Louisa'll come nearest to being mine by
bornation--though I'm thinking she's managed to wish me everybody
else's, on her curl."

"So! You are your own ancestor and your own descendant, and
everybody's kids are yours! You are modest, _hein_? And what else have
you got?"

His eyes suddenly danced. "Nothing but the rest of the United States,"
said the Butterfly Man, magnificently. And when I stared, he laughed
at me.

"It's quite true, parson: I have got the whole United States to work
for. Uncle Sam. U.S. _Us!_ I've been drafted into the Brigade that
hasn't any commander, nor any colors, nor honors, nor even a name;
but that's never going to be mustered out of service, because we that
enlist and belong can't and won't quit.

"Parson, think of _me_ representing the Brigade down here on the
Carolina coast, keeping up the work, fighting things that hurt and
finding out things that help Lord, what a chance! A hundred millions
to work for, a hundred millions of one's own people--and a trail to
blaze for the unborn millions to come!" His glance kindled, his face
was like a lighted lamp. The vision was upon him, standing there in
the April sunlight, staring wide-eyed into the future.

Its reflected light illumined me, too--a little. And I saw that in a
very large and splendid sense, this was the true American. He stoo